A Plain Malice: An Appleseed Creek Mystery (Appleseed Creek Mystery Series Book 4) (16 page)

“His loss,” she muttered.

Duke stirred his coffee. “Age is just a number. Right, Gertie?”

Doris cut
the remainder of her pie into tiny pieces with her fork and knife. “Gertie, you are a trip.”

Melinda looked heavenward.

“I’m sorry this is the first chance I’ve had to speak to you both,” I said to the married couple.

Duke reached across the table and squeeze
d my fingertips because the table was too large for a proper handshake. “Nothing to apologize for. We really appreciate you jumping in as our tour guide.”

Doris forked a bite of pie
. “Duke and I have been looking forward to this trip all year long. We were heartbroken when it looked like it would be canceled.” She covered her mouth with her hand. “I don’t want to sounds callous. We feel terrible about Dudley and Ruby.”

Her husband covered her hand with his. “We do.”

“I think you met my friend Becky today at Young’s Family Restaurant. She was your waitress.”

Doris swallowed her pie.
“What a stunning girl! I told her that she could be a model. She has the height and body for it.”

“She’s Timothy’s sister.”

Everyone at the table looked over at Timothy. “I can see the family resemblance,” Doris said. “What a beautiful family.”

“Good genes,” Gertie said.

Melinda sipped her water. Her pie plate was untouched. “I think I saw him at the farm where we had the accident this morning.”

Ivy
brought my shepherd’s pie to the table. It was a typical Amish-sized serving extra, extra large. I thanked her and picked up my fork. “He was there. His family owns that farm.”

“But he’s not Amish.”

The steam from the shepherd pie hit me in the face. “He left the church but is still close with his family.”

“Are the
y allowed to do that? Don’t they get shunned? I saw a program on cable television about Amish shunning each other.” Gertie pointed her spoon at me. “It’s shameful.”

I shifted in my seat. “The Amish do shun church members if they leave the church after they have been baptized Amish
. At least that’s how the Appleseed Creek district operates. Timothy and his sister Becky left the community before either one of them were baptized.”

“Still it can’t be easy for them to go back. What do they think of you dating their son? You don’t look like a runaway Amish
.” Gertie scrutinized me. “I’d say you are as far from Amish as a girl can get.”

“Amish who have left the community don’t look any different than any other English—that’s what the Amish call non-Amish people—person you might see in town
,” I said.

“Are you saying you’re a runaway Amish?”

I shook my head. “No. I’m from Cleveland.”

“Thought so,” Gertie said
with a victorious nod.

I
placed a spoonful of the shepherd’s pie in my mouth. It was delicious. It wasn’t until I started eating that I realized how hungry I was.

“Do you know where Pearl
is?” Gertie asked. “Did the police arrest her? Do they think she’s the killer?”

I swallowed.
“Pearl is staying at another hotel. It was her choice.”

Doris nodded sagely. “It must be difficult for her to be on the tour
.”

Gertie pointed the business end of her
spoon at Doris. “Bah. I bet she’s happy to be rid of Ruby. All the two of them ever did was fight.”

“They did
argue a lot on the bus.” Duke added four lumps of sugar to his coffee.

Doris pushed the sugar bowl away. “That’s enough for you.”

He frowned. “Doris and I sat in the seat right behind the cousins and listened to them squabble all the way across Pennsylvania. I wanted to throw myself off the bus by the time we reached the Ohio border.”

“
What did they argue about?” I asked.

“Anything and everything.
Ruby was the more vocal of the two. She always seemed to have the last word.” Duke finger walked toward the sugar bowl.

“Duke, you know what the doctor said about your sweet tooth.”

“He’s a quack,” Duke said as he turned back to me. “Those two made me think about my kids squabbling in the back of my car.”

That was interesting. “
The bus was half empty, why didn’t they sit in separate seats? There was plenty of room.”

Duke shook his head. “I don’
t know.”

“Was it mostly
minor disagreements like that?”

Duke nodded. “Maybe Pearl couldn’t take Ruby’s complaining anymore and snapped.”

“Then why would she kill Dudley too?” Melinda asked. “That doesn’t make much sense.”

Duke shrugged.
“To throw the police off the trail. It’s what I would do.”

“Duke!”
Doris yelped. “He’s kidding. He’s kidding.”

Melinda pushed her uneaten pie away from her and folded her hands on the table. “That’s a big risk and seems excessive.”

“He was joking.” Doris swatted her husband with her napkin. “I can’t take you anywhere.”

Gertie
picked up her fork. “Dudley wasn’t anything worth writing home about. He wasn’t at all enthusiastic about the Amish culture. At times he even sounded like he disliked it. Strange for a man leading tours through Amish Country.”

Doris set her water glass on the table. “I agree with Gertie about this. Duke and I spoke about it many times when we were in Lancaster County. Dudley didn’t like the Amish. It was clear.”

I lost my appetite. “What would he do?”

Gertie sipped her water before answering.
“He called everything about the Amish into question.”

This was
not
what I wanted to hear.

Melinda clenched her hands together on the table.

When she saw me looking at them, she slid them to her lap.

“Is everything all right, Melinda?”
I asked.

Her dark eyes snapped in my direction
. “I’m fine. I was just waiting for—”

Gertie interrupted her.
“She wants to tuck me into bed so she can have some free time on her own.”

“You know that’s not true, Gertie.” She
stirred her ice tea. “But I would like to go for a walk in the gardens before it’s too dark.”

“
Melinda loves plants,” Gertie said.

Melinda laughed. “That’s a funny statement, Gertie. Almost everyone loves plants.”

“Not like you.” Gertie scooted back her chair. It barely moved. Melinda stood and pulled Gertie’s chair out helping her to her feet.

My throat was parched from all the talking. I lifted my water glass to my lips.

“It was nice to eat with you, and Chloe,” she patted my shoulder with her wrinkled hand. “If you get tired of the hunk-o-lovin’ over there just send him my way. I’ll show him a good time.”

Again I choked on a mouthful of water. I would have to remember liquids and Gertie did not mix.

“She’s a riot,” Duke said after Gertie and Melinda left the dining room. The guests at the other tables were beginning to leave too.

I forked a piece of carrot. “Was there anything else in particular you remember from Ruby and Pearl’s
conversations?”

Duke
creased his brow in thought. “No. I can’t recall anything. They reminded me a little bit of Laverne and Shirley. They even have the same color of hair.”

At my confused look, Duke laughed. “It’s an old television sitcom from the 1970s. Way before your time. It was about these two women friends who were funny and bickered.”

“Oh,” I said.

Duke sighed.
“Google it.”

Doris laughed.
“I think Melinda had the right idea. We should turn in. It’s been a trying day.”

Duke stood and pulled out his wife’s chair. “Don’t forget your purse,
dear.”

She smiled at him as if she were a teenager mooning over a boy she
liked. Now, that was a last cupcake look.

I stood too. “Good night.”

“Good night, Chloe,” they said and shuffled out of the dining room.

Timothy was the only one left in the dining room. I picke
d up my plate and water and moved to sit across from him. He had finished his dinner. Having been caught up in the conversation with Gertie and the others, I had barely touched mine. Even though it was cold, it was still delicious. “What did Hudson have to say?”

Timothy cut into his slice of pie with his fork.
“Not much. That guy grunts a lot.”

“I noticed.”

“Looks like you had a pretty deep conversation going on at your table.”

I told him what I had heard about Ruby and Pearl’s relationship. I left out the Lavern
e and Shirley reference. If I didn’t know what it was, I knew Timothy wouldn’t.

“Was that all you talked about?”

“No.” I smiled slowly. “Gertie said you were a hunk-o-lovin’, and she would like to date you.”

Timothy choked on his
pie. Apparently, Gertie had that effect on people even when she wasn’t in the room.

Chapter Sixteen

I stood. “Come on. I want to have a walk around the grounds before it gets too dark.”

Timothy wiped at his mouth in a napkin. “
Is this a nice evening stroll or more sleuthing?”

I held out my hand to him. “We will call it a combo.”

Timothy and I went out the back door of the inn. The garden was massive. Several of the bus passengers walked through it. LeeAnne and Raellen admired the bluebells, and Charles took photo after photo of the bleeding heart. I couldn’t help but wonder how many others those plants were poisonous and which one could kill a person. I shivered. I didn’t see Melinda. Maybe she had changed her mind about touring the garden after she helped Gertie to her room.

“Are you cold?” Timothy asked.

“I’m fine. It’s just when we got back to the inn this evening, I thought I saw someone in the garden through the upstairs hall window.”

Timothy shrugged. “You might have. What were they doing?”

“That’s just it. I don’t know. I just caught a glimpse of a figure. I’m half convinced now that I imagined it. Everyone was there when we reached the dining room.”

Timothy and I walked around the side the inn just in time to see
Bishop Hooley climb out of a buggy. The deacon and Ephraim spoke in hushed tones at the hitching post.

Ephraim knew the deacon? Of course
, he knew the deacon; everyone in the district did. But how well?

Timothy gave my hand a squeeze and then released it before approaching the two men.

Deacon Sutter tethered the horse to a hitching post. Ephraim hurried away toward the back garden.

“I d-didn’t expect to find the two of you here,” the bishop said.

“Nor did we expect to see you,” I said.

Gravel crushed under the deacon’s feet as he joined us.

“Deacon Sutter and I are here to make sure that the p-passengers aren’t too upset by today.” The bishop paused. “We would have been here sooner, but we had a brief meeting of the district elders to discuss what has happened.”

My stomach clenched and I couldn’t help but wonder if they discussed the Troyer family at that meeting.

Timothy must have been thinking the same thing because he said, “You must know my father would never have done anything to hurt those people or jeopardize the visit.”

The deacon smoothed his black beard. “Perhaps it was simply a case of carelessness. Either way it harms the district.”

Timothy balled his fists at his sides. “I can assure you my father had nothing to do with the accident.”

“You can assure us of nothing. You are no longer a member of our community. Whatever you have to say is of no consequence to us.”

The bishop’s eyes darted from Timothy to the deacon and back again. “Deacon Sutter does not mean to offend. At the meeting, we agreed to leave this matter to the police. In this case, the district should not be involved.”

The deacon’s jaw twitched. He didn’t agree.

Had he tampered with the milk to get back at the Troyers? And now, the bishop decided to do nothing?

“C-Chloe, thank you for taking over as the tour guide,” the bishop stuttered. “
Chief Rose told us that she asked you to do that. We are grateful. It’s important that this tour goes well. At least it is important that the rest of the tour goes well.” His eyes flicked to the deacon. “However, the elders have decided that having the bus tour here was a mistake. We will not have such an event in the district again.”

A faint satisfied smile crossed the deacon’s face. Hadn’t Grandfather Zook said that morning that the deacon was against the bus tour? Would he go so far as to kill someone to make sure it never happened again?